Israel blocks Libyan ship taking aid to Gaza

Israeli navy insists ship lands the goods outside Gaza for delivery by land



The Amalthea is loaded with supplies at Lavrio, near Athens last Friday before it set sail for Gaza. Photograph: John Kolesidis/Reuters
A Libyan ship carrying aid for Gaza docked at an Egyptian port today after the Israeli navy stopped it from reaching the Palestinian territory.

The Amalthea, flying under a Moldovan flag, will unload its cargo and transfer it to the Red Crescent for delivery to Gaza by land across the border, said Gamal Abdel Maqsoud, director of the Egyptian port of el-Arish.

Israeli missile ships stopped the ship yesterday from reaching the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas. Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist group took control of the territory in violent clashes with the rival Fatah group in June 2007.

The Amalthea was the latest ship to attempt to break the embargo, six weeks after the Israeli navy's interception of an aid flotilla in which nine Turkish activists were killed. The assault prompted a wave of international condemnation and resulted in Israel agreeing to ease its blockade of Gaza. But it has maintained the naval embargo, insisting it is necessary and justified under international law to prevent weapons being shipped to Hamas.

The Amalthea sailed from Greece at the weekend carrying up to 15 activists and 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine, according to the organisers, a charity chaired by a son of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.

Youssef Sawani, director of the charity, told Reuters it was a "peaceful mission". But Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, wrote to Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, expressing concern "that the true nature of its actions remains dubious".

Following intense Israeli diplomatic efforts, Greece – from where the boat sailed – Moldova – under whose flag the boat is operating – and Egypt all agreed that the Amalthea should be directed to el-Arish, 40km (25 miles) from Gaza, where its cargo could be unloaded, inspected and transferred to Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Israel had also invited the activists to unload the shipment at the Israeli port of Ashdod, a similar distance from Gaza.

Despite ceding to calls for the blockade to be relaxed in the aftermath of the assault on the flotilla on 31 May, Israel has insisted the commandos who carried out the raids acted in self-defence. It has resisted calls for a UN-led inquiry but has appointed two panels, one military and one civilian, to review the raid.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Gaza aid ship changes course for Egypt

Watches this Gaza aid ship changes course for Egypt
Amalthea being shadowed by Israeli military which has warned it will not be allowed to reach Gaza Strip



Crates of cooking oil are loaded on to the cargo ship Amalthea in Greece. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
A Libyan charity's ship carrying aid for the Gaza Strip has changed course for Egypt after Israel warned those on board not to try and dock in Gaza.

The Moldovan-flagged Amalthea is heading to Egypt's El Arish port, an Israeli official has said. Egypt says the Amalthea has been granted permission to dock in El Arish and authorities plan to transfer its declared haul of 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine overland to neighbouring Gaza.

The new course appears to lessen the likelihood of a repeat of a confrontation that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists on 31 May when Israeli soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara.

Before turning around, the captain of the Amalthea had told the Israeli navy that it had engine troubles. The military had four missile ships tailing the Libyan vessel.

The Libyan charity, headed by the son of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, said the Amalthea left Greece on Saturday carrying 2,000 tons of food and medical supplies.

Israeli has invited the activists to unload the shipment at the Israeli port of Ashdod.

The 31 May raid focused international attention on Israel's blockade of Gaza, imposed after the Islamic militant and anti-Israeli Hamas overran the Palestinian territory in June 2007. The international criticism forced Israel to ease its land blockade of the territory but it has maintained the naval embargo, insisting it is vital to keep weapons out of Hamas's hands.

The Gaza blockade and the challenges to it have caused Israel serious diplomatic damage, putting it on the defensive against demands for inquiries and criticism over Gaza's plight.

Israel says the commandos who took part in the 31 May raid had been defending themselves against violent pro-Palestinian activists. Activists have said they acted in self-defence after Israeli troops landed on their ship.

Israel has resisted calls for a UN-led inquiry but has appointed two panels, one military and one civilian, to review the raid.

Findings released on Monday from an Israeli military-commissioned report found flawed planning and intelligence gathering but concluded the commandos were justified in opening fire after being confronted by violent pro-Palestinian activists.

The mandate of the civilian inquiry is limited to investigating the legality of the operation. Two international observers have been attached to the civilian

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Israel rightly ended the Gaza blockade, though belatedly

Israel rightly ended the Gaza blockade, though belatedly

nd its three-year blockade of civilian goods entering the Gaza Strip is a welcome move. Sadly, it came about a year too late, and its timing and circumstances benefited the wrong parties. That’s because the Netanyahu government (in all fairness, like many of its predecessors) seems to do the right thing only under heavy pressure.

The move is welcome because the blockade was plainly counterproductive. The stated objectives of the blockade – which varied from time to time – were to oblige Hamas to moderate its policies or otherwise to weaken or depose that Islamist movement, and to force a prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit on terms acceptable to Israel. Had the blockade achieved any of these objectives, it might have been defensible to impose collective punishment on 1.5 million Gazans. Instead, Hamas grew stronger, while the more moderate Gazan business and agrarian sectors that depend on trade with and via Israel grew weaker. Shalit is still a prisoner of Hamas. The failure of the blockade was obvious at least a year ago. Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly allowed that he recognized the counterproductive nature of the economic warfare waged against Gaza soon after taking office.

The Netanyahu government did not invent this strategy, but rather inherited it from the Olmert government which in turn inherited a partial and occasional blockade from the Sharon government. Sharon’s initial reliance on economic warfare against Gaza is instructive: upon carrying out Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the territory in the summer of 2005, Sharon threatened far-reaching military measures if, following withdrawal, Qassam rocket attacks against Israeli civilian targets continued. When, within weeks of the withdrawal, the attacks were renewed, Sharon, followed soon by Olmert, responded not with massive military force but with economic warfare, including the dismantling of the entire economic incentive structure put in place by the international community to take advantage of the withdrawal.

But Sharon’s economic punishment did not stop the Qassams. Consequently, Israel’s deterrent image was badly damaged. Hamas escalated its attacks until Israel finally did respond with overwhelming force in late 2008 and early 2009. In this sense, the past five years of dealing with Hamas in Gaza have been illustrative of the difficulty Israel has in finding strategies to deal with a militant Islamist non-state neighbor that rejects Israel’s existence, would welcome an Israeli invasion and is prepared for its population to be martyred.

Israel did not embark alone on the blockade. Three years ago, when Hamas took over Gaza in a violent coup against Fatah, the decision to punish the territory until Hamas agreed to renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept the Oslo framework was made collectively by the Olmert government together with the Quartet, Egypt and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. With the passage of time, and as the counterproductive nature of the blockade became increasingly obvious, Israel’s partners publicly took their distance, though privately some continued to encourage Israel to continue.



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